16/22 The period of this binary seems to be about 750 years. This star is a wide but not easy double, the secondary being only of the ninth magnitude; its colour is lilac, that of the primary being yellow. Of these the lowest is [alpha], to the right of which lies [epsilon] Equulei, a fifth-magnitude star, really triple, but seen as a double star with ordinary telescopes (Plate 5). The distance between the components is nearly 11", their colours white and blue, their magnitudes 5-1/2 and 7-1/2. |